


Five Times Jake and Amy Meet

by finnthejedi



Category: Brooklyn Nine-Nine (TV)
Genre: 5 Times, Alternate Universe, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-17
Updated: 2018-07-16
Packaged: 2019-06-11 18:22:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,461
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15321498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/finnthejedi/pseuds/finnthejedi
Summary: As the title suggests, just five different first meetings between Jake and Amy. Because no matter where and how they meet, Jake and Amy knew from the start they needed each other in their lives. Alternate universe times five.





	Five Times Jake and Amy Meet

One: Jake and Amy Meet in College

Jake first met Amy while she was sitting alone in a classroom, and he was trying to avoid having to retake a course a third time. His class didn’t start for another hour, but he had an exam, and if he didn’t go right after lunch before another assignment distracted him or he got caught up in a video game or a conversation with whomever was hanging outside the cafeteria, he might miss it. Last year, that happened twice, one of which led him to get his lowest grade ever in a course, and since he intended to make detective—he had that dream since grade school—he couldn’t repeat that mistake.

When Jake had realized he wasn’t alone in the classroom, he had stopped rehearsing the material in his head. He tended to either remember what he read or heard and recall it precisely or never be able to remember it period and thus need to keep looking it up anyway, so studying longer than a cursory glance wasn’t his jam. His gaze had hovered over Amy’s fizzy hair, fizzy like a bird had constructed a nest down her head and onto her back or someone just shot layer after layer of brown silly string off her scalp. She had either spent too much time in 100% humidity or styled it this way on purpose, maybe as a prank after losing a bet. After her hair, Jake had noticed her knitting and noticed that she didn’t look up, make eye contact or smile. She just knit, and breathed, he assumed. He wondered if someone was pranking him, if this woman was a plant for some reason he would have to uncover. Regardless, Jake had needed to know what was up with her.

“Go ahead and say it.” The first words Amy had spoken to him. It was good she had disrupted his thought process or he would have daydreamed a backstory for Amy and probably would have missed the exam that was literally taking place around him, which was what he needed to avoid.

“What?”

Amy put down her knitting, a red-orange rectangle, on the desk and studied him. Jake had thought that the vibrant color of her yarn made her eyes pop, much more than the grey-blue blouse she wore. Her expression was serious, which filled Jake with guilt because he knew his expression would match his goofy thoughts.

“Say it. Say what you’re thinking. Everyone else already has.”

Jake chuckled, shaking his head. No one, let alone the uninitiated should glimpse into his head. “You’ll think I’m weird.”

Amy fidgeted with the needles, eyes on the yarn again. When she moved her hands, Jake noticed chalk on them. “Isn’t that what you’re thinking… about me? That I’m weird.”

Jake had dropped his bag on the floor and slid into the wooden desk beside Amy. It had wobbled. “No. Not at all. Honestly, I was first curious whether you spent the last week somewhere humid or lost a bet, which resulted in a devious person getting to do your hair.” Jake shrugged. “From there, my mind jumped to wanting to spend the time before my exam, and realistically, much of the time during the exam, brainstorming a fake life for you—you know, how you came to be sitting here, what makes you tick, your hopes and dreams. You get it, very weird.”

Amy’s laughter had interrupted Jakes rambling. She had laughed until tears pricked her eyes and her whole body shaking caused her desk to wobble too. Should have been a comedian, Jake had thought, if it had this effect on the ladies.

“You’re too kind, uh…”

“Jake.” Jake had waved instead of offering her his hand. “And I’m really not. I put a fruit roll-up in my roommate’s toaster this morning, then covered it with bread crumbs so he wouldn’t know.”

“I'm Amy, and I uh, just put bread in my toaster this morning. No, I can't lie. I had a muffin."

“Good call, good call.” Jake gripped the desk which had rocked again as he laughed at his own story. Amy was still smiling, still playing with those needles.

“So, uh… are you in this class?” Jake knew she wasn’t. He knew he hadn’t seen her before. “I mean… I know you’re not. I know who is in my class, like everyone does.” He gulped. “So, uh, do you like… to knit? I mean, what are you making?”

Amy looks to the wall with the chalkboard. Dust had covered it, but the eraser had left straight vertical marks. “Just knitting.” She snorted. “Now anyway. I was erasing the board, but that increased my anxiety because no matter how many strokes up and down, I left streaks.”

“Well, orange-ish-red is a good color. For you. For your yarn, for your knitting.”

Amy had held up the rectangle. She was smiling again, and it made Jake feel accomplished, far prouder than, probably, making it to this exam could ever make him.

“Want to know how my hair really got this way?” Amy broke their moment of staring and smiling.

“I’m going to be a detective, Amy, I think I can figure it out. Tell me, do you prefer a weather reporter whose plane made an emergency landing on a deserted island on her way to do a story on record breaking humidity or an undercover agent attending a school for hairdressers to thwart a syndicate that’s been robbing banks and smuggling the money with scraps of hair. If it helps you decide, the weather reporter was lost in the desert as a child and is trying to reclaim her lost years by seeking out the most tropical climates, and—”

Amy blinked.

“Yeah, yeah, I do.” Don’t mess this up, Jake, he thought. Don’t confuse or talk over this woman. Stop fixating on her hair before you imply she isn’t gorgeous. Don’t imply she is gorgeous. She is gorgeous, and Jake wanted her to understand that, but it needed to be about her, not him.

“I braided it, and then unbraided it. All night until my fingers ached. Who knows why, just couldn’t sleep, couldn’t concentrate on reading or planning or organizing. It happens sometimes—all of it, the braiding, the not sleeping, the inability to focus and sometimes, work. So, I make binders when I can, to lessen the uncertainty and stay focused.” While she was finishing that last sentence, Amy nudged her bag with her brown boots—ankle length, small heel and suede.

Before Amy, no one had confided in Jake. It had never come up in any of his friendships or relationships. It was all farts and boobs with his gang. While Amy was talking, his mouth had gone dry. Maybe it was because orange soda just left him thirstier, but given the circumstance, he was willingly to entertain the idea that orange soda wasn’t all to blame. He needed to make a joke, but she hadn’t given him enough of an innuendo to run with.

“Sorry. You came here to relax before an exam. I’m just about the opposite of that. I get it. I like to get in the zone too.” Amy stood, scooping up her yarn, needles and the rectangle.

“No!” Jake leapt to his feet, put his hand on her arm. “Please, don’t… don’t let me disturb you. I’m the one disturbing you. Again, to be honest, I just needed to come to this room before my exam while I was thinking about it or I would forget. I’ve forgotten exams before.”

The smile returns to Amy’s face, and Jake’s heart calms.

“I’m glad you disturbed me. You made me laugh. I like that.”

“Me too. I like that I made you laugh.” He bites his tongue. There goes his heart again. Watching her inquisitive eyes, Jake knew he had to put the effort in to say the right thing. “I like that you like that I made you laugh.”

Amy nodded a tiny nod, which Jake might have missed if he had as much as blinked. He would keep stumbling over his words if it meant he could inspire that glow in Amy’s face.

When the door opens and another student enters, Amy’s eyes jump in that direction and since his focus is no longer on her face, Jake realizes his hand is still wrapped around her arm.

“Well, if you have an exam, I can’t stay but…” Amy’s eyes dart from the door to Jake.

“I’ll give you my number.” Jake had blurted, knowing she would say that next, if she could, which he doubted.

Amy nods again. This time more noticeably.

From the start, Jake knew he wanted Amy in his life.


End file.
